Free Republic

Illinois Rep. Mark Kirk penned a memo to Republican poobah Fred Malek hoping to secure an endorsement from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for his Senate candidacy, according to a copy of the memo obtained by the Fix. After noting that Palin will be in Chicago later this month to appear on "Oprah", Kirk writes that "the Chicago media will focus on one key issue: Does Gov[ernor] Palin oppose Congressman Mark Kirk's bid to take the Obama Senate seat for the Republicans?" Kirk goes on to write that he is hoping for something "quick and decisive" from Palin about the...

At first I thought this article was a joke. I really thought that there was no way our government schools have gotten this bad. But I was wrong. Go figure. The Tucson Unified School District has decided to implement a two-tiered system for student discipline. One tier will be for blacks and Hispanics ... and the other tier will be for everyone else.

Frank Darabont, the director of The Shawshank Redemption, has words for the millions of people who believe his 1994 prison drama is the greatest film of all time. “I think that’s a little crackers, to be honest, especially when you think of the other films on the list.” He means films such as The Godfather, Citizen Kane, Lolita, Vertigo and foreign-language contenders like Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist, Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt, Luis Buñuel’s Belle de jour or Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant.

President Barack Obama's former Indian-American campaign adviser Raja Krishnamoorthi will be running for the post of Illinois Comptroller, the State's chief fiscal officer, in the 2010 elections. Mr. Krishnamoorthi said he will "fight to restore trust in state government and bring more transparency and accountability" at a time when the State has been plagued with scandals like digging and selling of grave sites at the Burr Oak cemetery and admission irregularities at the University of Illinois. "As so often happens in our capital Springfield, the special interests have won and our state government is broken.It is time to fix it....

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has scheduled a vote Friday on a sprawling climate-change bill, signaling the Democratic leadership's confidence that it can overcome objections from Farm Belt Democrats.

Do you support Ron Paul? Three categories: President Congressman Governor

In January, Oprah Winfrey invited Suzanne Somers on her show to share her unusual secrets to staying young. Each morning, the 62-year-old actress and self-help author rubs a potent estrogen cream into the skin on her arm. She smears progesterone on her other arm two weeks a month. And once a day, she uses a syringe to inject estrogen directly into her vagina.

The time for universal health insurance coverage has come. Everybody seems to know that -- except for the Republicans, all too many of whom cling to traditional denunciations of universal coverage as socialism... The Republicans could instead offer a consumer-controlled universal coverage system, like that in Switzerland, in which the people, not the government, control how much they spend on health. There are no government health insurance programs. Instead, the Swiss choose from about 85 private heath insurers... This consumer-driven, universal coverage system provides excellent health care for the sick, tops the world in consumer satisfaction, and costs 40 percent...

Economic development officials in Hardin are looking at the soon-to-close detention facility in Guantanamo Bay as a possible fix for the jail sitting empty in Hardin. President Barack Obama signed an executive order Jan. 22 to close the Guantanamo detention facilities in Cuba where hundreds of enemy combatants have been held since 2002. The closure is to occur in a year, during which time remaining detainees must be returned to their home countries or detained elsewhere. Meanwhile, a 460-bed detention facility sits empty in Hardin. Built by Two Rivers Authority, the city's economic development arm, the facility was meant to...

ONE OF THE most pressing issues the Obama administration will face when it closes the Guantanamo detention center is what to do with the 63 detainees cleared for release or transfer who cannot return home. These men will require assistance from friendly democracies. Undoubtedly, a number of foreign nations will demand that some of these innocent detainees be resettled in the United States before they act similarly. Seventeen Uighurs are entering their eighth year of imprisonment at Guantanamo. The only realistic option is for the Uighurs to be resettled in the United States. There is no evidence the Uighurs plotted...

From an Email I just received: Being the Republican nominee for President was one of the great honors of my life and an experience I will never forget. Some have wondered, after my hard fought presidential campaign, if I plan to run for re-election to the United States Senate. Join my re-election team I want you to know that I do intend to seek re-election. The magnitude of the financial crisis that many American families are facing makes it clear to me that I want to continue to serve our country in the Senate. The economic challenges currently confronting our...

No one gets the fascination with Michelle Obama, fashion plate, more than her husband. Invoking another president with a glamorous wife—that would be, maybe, John F. Kennedy? — President Obama told military guests at the Commander in Chief Ball last night, “I have the special honor of being the guy who accompanied Michelle Obama to the ball.” That got a big laugh, but it would be a few minutes before the first lady made her entrance, in an ivory chiffon dress. But when she did, oh, what a roar. It was an amazing day for Mrs. Obama — chic and...

Her parents made their way to Chicago in the Great Migration, settling in the Near South Side ghetto then part of the city's Black Belt. Margie Edwards, 78, of Englewood, has vivid memories of growing up during segregation, of Jim Crow laws and the newcomer called King, of marching hand-in-hand with strangers in Selma. So when a newcomer came along 45 years later, she was skeptical. "I said, 'Boy, he don't stand a snowball's chance in hell,' " said Edwards, whose daughter Pamela Frazier is taking Edwards' eight grandchildren and great-grandchildren to Washington for Barack Obama's inauguration as president. "But...

Do you need Obama coverage 24 hours a day? In several markets, Comcast cable is launching an all-Obama, On Demand channel. (In D.C., it's channel 963). Leading up to Inauguration, the channel will offer a number of Obama-related programs, according to a release: "Barack Obama’s most famous speeches to date, from his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 through his election night victory speech in Grant Park; Barack Obama biography; Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic National Convention speech; a tour of the White House; and the history of Air Force One."

Maybe I'm just being too cynical, but somehow I doubt that Rep. Jose Serrano introduced HJ Res 5 in order to allow George W Bush to run for a third term in office. One week ago, the New York Democrat introduced a measure to repeal the 22nd Amendment, which provides the only term limit on federal office - the Presidency. The amendment, added in 1951, restricts anyone from seeking a third term in office, and Serrano wants that repealed. Why now? Apparently, the notion of Hope and Change has overwhelmed Serrano to the point that he just can't stand to...

As time goes on more and more Islamic leaders are not hiding their agenda and are calling for Islamic law. Let us examine three cases of this. The first taking place in the US. He is a Phoenix Imam who is calling for Muslims not to follow the laws of the US government, but instead follow those of Sharia or Islamic law . Here is what Omar Shahin, president of the North American Imams Foundation has said.

Can we just all play nice? Never mind the fact that the rats have spent the last 8 years...DO NOT EVER FORGET THOSE YEARS...crapping on President Bush and Vice President Cheney and plan to continue. Be nice, will you? What kind of rotten hateful people are you anyway? Obama is OUR president, so it's time to get behind him...even though we have no effing idea who he is (well, we have some idea but not because of disclosure). Just give him the benefit of the doubt, he is above making simple disclosures to us mere plebes. It is disrespectful, and...

The Weekly Standard Fred Thompson in 2012? Laying the groundwork for another presidential run. by Stephen F. Hayes 08/29/2008 3:00:00 AM IF FRED THOMPSON was the latest entrant in the 2008 Republican primary process, he may well be the earliest in 2012. Not that he will admit it. Over the course of the past two years, there has been much talk that the Republican party lacks a strong conservative leader. In May 2007, Thompson offered himself up and, on the issues, made a plausible case that he could be the guy. But his late entry to the presidential race, together...

Barack Obama's big speech on tomorrow night will be delivered from an elaborate columned platform resembling a miniature Greek temple, it has been revealed. The stage is similar to structures used for rock concerts and has been set up at the 50-yard-line, the midpoint of Invesco Field, the stadium where the Denver Broncos' American football team plays. Up to 80,000 supporters will see Mr Obama appear from between plywood columns painted off-white, reminiscent of the White House, to accept the party's nomination for president. He will stride out to a raised platform to a podium that can be raised from...

You think the mainstream media aren't trying to build Barack Obama up as high as possible? Here is a brief video of NBC Nightly News on July 20, where they led the broadcast by referring to BO's trip as his "Tour of Duty." I'm sure our men and women in uniform would agree with that characterization. You can't make this stuff up. . . (see video)

Good morning!No primaries, no Hillary, but lots to do beginning TODAY to prevent an Obama presidency!

Is it possible that California could go for a Republican for the first time since 1988? One of the cable news networks reported last night that McCain had come within a few percentage points of B. Hussein Obama in CA. What could make this happen? #1. The referendum on the ballot that would reverse the State Supreme Court Ruling on same-sex marriage. This will bring Conservatives out in droves. (Hopefully out of their hatred for McCain they won’t vote for B. Hussein Obama.) #2. The craziness that keeps going on in B. Hussein's church. I've got to believe that the...

Campus activist Ryan Sorba delivered his "born gay hoax" lecture at the notoriously pro-homosexualist Smith College in Massachusetts last night. You can see leftist/homosexualist reaction in the blogosphere and watch a video of the rabid activists that refused to let Sorba deliver his blockbuster speech. Here is a pdf of his upcoming book: http://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen/08a/born_gay_hoax/TheBornGayHoax.pdf And here is audio from a previous speech at Framingham State University: http://www.massresistance.org/media/audio/2008/BornGayHoax_033108.m3u

By Natalie O'Brien April 26, 2008 The Australian OUTSPOKEN Muslim cleric Taj al-Din al-Hilali says the Bible "mandates" the wearing of the veil by Christian women. Writing in a new book, Sheik Hilali, who lost his job as mufti of Australia after comparing scantily clad women to uncovered meat, argues that the Bible and the Koran make similar demands of a woman's modesty. Sheik Hilali, who remains the head of Australia's largest mosque, in the southwestern Sydney suburb of Lakemba, says the purpose of the book is to show the commonalities of Islam with the Jewish and Christian faiths when...

**EXCERPT** The same conservative Christian activist who called a meeting last fall to discuss backing a third-party candidate to counter a possible Rudy Giuliani candidacy is revisiting the idea as Sen. John McCain closes in on the Republican presidential nomination. Bob Fischer, a South Dakota businessman and anti-abortion activist, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that while he could back the Arizona senator over either Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama, he made clear that he and others in the evangelical movement are not content with those choices. "I'll be working in other ways to see that we...

If the primary season reveals no decisive front-runner, and if conservative delegates head toward the GOP convention with the nagging feeling that our best candidate wasn't in the race, we urge them to consider acting on what so many Republicans and Reagan Democrats are thinking. Drafting Newt Gingrich is a real solution to the current leadership problem. Even as a vice presidential choice, Gingrich would solidify the ranks and reinforce the GOP's position as the party of bold ideas, but as a presidential choice he could bring about a truly needed Second Reagan Revolution.

As is usually the case in politics, in recent weeks we’ve seen a lot of unfair bashing of John McCain as well as gross distortion of his record. Of the two or three candidates with a shot winning the nomination, only John McCain has been a consistent conservative, dating back to before President Reagan. The issues on which he differs with the party are never moral in nature and even then, he's never supported a tax increase and was only opposed to the last two major tax cuts because they contained no curbs on spending. Romney sounds conservative now, but...

Drudge: Siren only.

This is a little bit humor for this Christmas. Personally, I think it's brilliant...( tip of the hat to Instapundit & Randy Barnett )...

The Government is planning a new Whitehall commission that will try to tackle the growth of the "nanny state". Gordon Brown is personally leading the "radical" initiative, having accepted that government has "assumed more responsibility for people's lives than is healthy or desired". He wants the new body to explain to the public why it should no longer do so. advertisement In June, the Prime Minister asked the Better Regulation Commission (BRC), the independent watchdog, to work out the plans and it is understood the final details are now being agreed. If the proposal is given the green light, the...

Conservatives would bolt GOP over Rudy By: David Paul Kuhn June 11, 2007 04:57 PM EST A growing number of influential social conservatives are speaking out against Rudy Giuliani, with some threatening that they will take flight from the Republican Party in 2008 if the former New York mayor is the GOP nominee. Giuliani's support for abortion rights and gay rights has not to date prevented him from winning the support of a sizable number of socially conservative voters, according to polls. But the continued strength of his candidacy is causing alarm among leaders of conservative advocacy groups, many of...

Publics around the world favor dramatic steps to strengthen the United Nations, including giving it the power to have its own standing peacekeeping force, to regulate the international arms trade and to investigate human rights abuses. Large majorities believe the United Nations Security Council should have the right to authorize military force to prevent nuclear proliferation, genocide and terrorism. However support is not as robust among the publics polled for accepting UN decisions that go against their countries’ preferences. These are some of the findings from a survey conducted by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and WorldPublicOpinion.org, in cooperation...

...the average monthly page views at The Drudge Report have been 250 million. EconomicPolicyMonitor.com (EPM) calculates that traffic of this size results in multi-millions in monthly revenue for Drudge...Given that the average price to earnings ratio in the, slowly declining circulation, newspaper industry is 23, a value on the internet driven revenue stream of Drudge can easily justify a near billion dollar value for the site, maybe more...

I just thought I would throw it out there for your consideration. Duncan's choice is NOT negotiable. Newt's IS :) Why Newt?... Because yes, we can forgive those who deserve a second chance, and besides, he will pay the price by running in the second slot, as the Vice-President (Not that there is anything wrong with that!). Then, having gained invaluable experience, fully rehabilitated for his indiscretions, THEN, he will be ready to be president. He is still a young man so he's got the time.

But that analysis may be too simple. In Delaware Giuliani is asked for the umpteenth time if his views on 'social issues' would be fatal to his presidential ambitions. 'I don't get to decide what the issues are. But they are not usually the ones you think they are going to be,' he says. He is right. National security will still be the overwhelming issue of 2008. Giuliani's strong credentials there could make up for weaknesses elsewhere. There are also signs that his problems with the conservatives could be overstated. First, their power is waning. In 2006's congressional elections the...

Moves Closer To Full-Fledged Presidential Run (CBS/AP) WASHINGTON -- Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Monday defended the Iraq war and criticized Al Gore's global-warming movie. As for his presidential ambitions, Giuliani coyly inched closer to a formal announcement. "I am 100 percent committed," he said. "That official part, I still have to do a formal announcement. But we'll figure out how to do that. My idea is that I'm going to try to announce this in 100 different places." Giuliani, a Republican, said he supports efforts to move California's 2008 presidential primary from June to February, a...

Saddam Hussein has been convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging.he former Iraqi leader was convicted over the killing of 148 people in the mainly Shia town of Dujail following an assassination attempt on him in 1982. His half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and Iraq's former chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bandar were also sentenced to death. Former Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan got life in jail and three others received 15-year prison terms. Another co-defendant, Baath party official Mohammed Azawi Ali, was acquitted. Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants will be given the right to appeal, but that is expected...

What He’s Trying to Say By BEN WALLACE-WELLS The White House, like any castle, has its own peculiar rituals, and in the five months that Tony Snow has been President George W. Bush’s press secretary, he has begun to learn them. [snip] ...a man named Lester Kinsolving, a radio host and reporter for a Baltimore station with a big grin and game-show-host wavy hair, will interrupt a back-and-forth on, say, the operational capacities of Al Qaeda to read confounding questions he has written out, word for word, before the press briefing began. “Tony,” Kinsolving began one morning in September, “The...

They're mostly a liberal bunch. Yet the would-be chairmen in a House under Democratic control promise to rule from the center. They'd have little choice, given the likely balance of power they would confront if elected. George W. Bush would still occupy the Oval Office, and no one thinks Democrats could win control of the House by more than a few seats next month. And that would include three dozen or more moderate "blue dog" Democrats. The dynamics ensure that despite the overwhelmingly liberal cast of the chairmen-to-be — as measured by liberal interest groups such as Americans for Democratic...

I'm not sure when this started, but a crucifix cross* appears to have become a regular part of Hillary Clinton's wardrobe. She wore a gold one July 20, for a speech criticizing advertising directed at children. No picture available.) And she wore the diamond-studded one pictured above to the News last week. A Google Images search doesn't seem to turn up any others, though whenever you think you've noticed something new about Clinton, her aides usually produce rock-solid evidence that it has always been thus. Clinton's Christianity, while never exactly lapsed, has rarely been forefront; noticing the jewelry doesn't strike...

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union embarked on the most massive military buildups in history. Part of President Reagan's strategy for winning was to entice the Soviets into a competition it could never even hope to win. A communist economy by its very nature is ill-equipped to compete with a free-market, capitalist system whether it's foreign trade or weapons technology. And so, slowly the Soviet economy became a basket case due to the communists desire to exceed America in an enormously expensive arms race. After the Cold War, with the Soviet threat gone and with...

(If you're thinking what you're thinking is just a joke; you might be horrified to know that any play on words in the original title is intentional.) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- New York, NY- July, 26 2006—- A presidential bust of Hillary Clinton is set to be unveiled at the Museum of Sex on August 9, 2006 at 10 am. Accentuating her sexual power and bolstered by the presidential seal, The Presidential Bust of Hillary Rodham Clinton: The First Woman President of the United States of America will be officially open for public viewing on August 9 for a limited six...

People who drink alcohol are up to four times more likely than non-drinkers to be hurt from physical injuries such as a fall or punch, new research shows.

By now, most people around politics know that former New York Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani would be seeking the nomination for president of the United States. A recent column by Washington's premiere political pundit, Robert Novak, only underlines the obvious: The question is not If Giuliani runs, but When he openly declares that he is running. Though Novak does not say when, I would speculate that Giuliani will announce by the end of this year. A recent Gallup Poll asked the question of its participants: Who they would opt for as the Republican front runner in the 2008 presidential election?...

WASHINGTON - Julian Bond has condemned the war in Iraq and administration policy on education and the economy, yet the NAACP’s chairman is urging President Bush to attend the civil rights group’s annual convention. “We are eminently hopeful that the president will come,” said Bond, whose speech Sunday evening helps kick off this week’s conference. Bush has avoided the conventions since taking office in 2001. His schedule for Wednesday lists an event with the notation “TBA,” or to be announced.

His dragon-slaying heroics have kept his legend alive through the centuries. But the Church of England is considering rejecting England's patron saint St George on the grounds that his image is too warlike and may offend Muslims. Clergy have started a campaign to replace George with St Alban, a Christian martyr in Roman Britain. The scheme, to be considered by the Church's parliament, the General Synod, has met a cautious but sympathetic response from senior bishops. But it clashes with the increasing popularity of the saint and his flag in England. The World Cup brought out millions of St George...

With "In Mortal Danger" skyrocketing up the bestseller charts and public concern growing daily over America's illegal immigration problem, the book's author, Rep. Tom Tancredo – the nation's undisputed heavyweight champion of the border security issue – just may be elected president, a popular cable TV newscaster said yesterday. Since the official launch of his sensational book Monday, Tancredo has been on a media blitz – his book bulleting up the Amazon bestseller list from 7,311 on Monday to 25 yesterday. On Fox News' "Your World with Neil Cavuto" yesterday, host Neil Cavuto introduced Tancredo this way: "Illegals coming into...

WASHINGTON - Immigration issues are always ripe for demagoguery, particularly in an election year. But the solution to the very real problems along the U.S.-Mexican border can be found, ironically, in that other part of the world that demagogues love to ridicule: old Europe. Two years ago, the European Union admitted 10 new members. Like Mexico, all of these nations were poor, some of them fairly backward and most recently ravaged by war and dictatorship. The leaders of the European Union wisely created policies for fostering regional economic and political integration that make the North American Free Trade Agreement "look...

WASHINGTON -- The Hon. Newt Gingrich's recent oracular rumble to a luncheon audience at the Brookings Institution, during which he threatened to seek the Republican presidential nomination if a "vacuum" remains in the Republican field, reminded me of an inescapable insight I suffered sometime in 1998. Gingrich is the Republicans' Bill Clinton. Being a Republican, Gingrich is not as vacuous as the Arkansas huckster, nor as amusing. In fact, he can be boring. Springing from the same late 1960s Jugendkultur as the Boy President, Gingrich is the career pol, the hustling, self-promoting narcissist, the sempiternal fantasist. When he was Speaker...

Democrats close to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton take seriously a possible third-party presidential candidacy in 2008 by Michael Bloomberg despite the mayor of New York’s disavowal of interest. One prominent investment banker with political connections predicts that Bloomberg will dispose of his multibillion-dollar business interests before his term as mayor ends a year before the presidential election. While expected to continue his heavy philanthropy, he will have millions to spare for a presidential campaign. A footnote: Unity08, the third-party movement established by ex-Jimmy Carter aides Hamilton Jordan and Gerald Rafshoon, is reported by political insiders to be seeking financial aid...